Xantus won the Strategy category and the IT Consultant of the Year category at this year’s Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Awards held on 7th April 2011. The MCA Awards are a benchmark for quality within the consulting industry - recognising the very best projects and individuals.

Xantus' Associate Director James Cockroft was crowned IT Consultant of the Year and Xantus also beat off stiff competition from two of the four Big Four firms to pick up the Strategy Award for its work with United Utilities.

Cockroft’s IT Consultant of the Year crown was in recognition of his significant contribution and success with Xantus over more than five years. With a specialist focus on IT sourcing and technology architecture, James’ work has also included project management, process development and benchmarking for clients as diverse as Aviva, Birds Eye iglo Group and Diageo.

The Strategy Award followed work which started for Xantus in 2009 when United Utilities decided to sell its non-regulated business, Utility Solutions. The global business portfolio included some 40 separate businesses and was worth some £0.5bn. The IT environment presented a major risk to the sale of the business, so a strategy to separate the systems, applications, infrastructure and data was vital.

For CEO of Xantus Consulting, Steve Watmough, the Awards are a welcome boost for the company: "We often receive positive testimonials from our clients, but to win two such prestigious awards in the world of management consultancy means independent recognition and that is a significant accolade.

We are delighted for James and the Xantus Team. They were up against very strong competition and it was great to have a double celebration at the Awards evening."

Xantus and United Utilities
With a highly centralised technology function but no dedicated IT Department, Utility Solutions turned to Xantus to assist with the task of creating and implementing a strategy for the sale and reducing the risk to United Utility’s business. This included identifying each of the business operations, their IT systems, infrastructure, applications and data, developing a comprehensive separation strategy, and providing direct support during negotiations with potential purchasers. Additional complexity was added by the need for total confidentiality throughout the preparation and negotiation period.

In November 2010, Utility Solutions was purchased successfully by six trade buyers, helped by Xantus’ IT strategy and consulting support. So much value was placed on Xantus’ work that its approach to IT separation, planning and governance was replicated and re-applied to other functional areas of United Utilities in preparation for the sale.

The results were announced at the MCA Awards Dinner in London on 7 April, 2011.